Posted on 09/22/2005 2:42:37 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
And by the way, thank you for your service.
I suspect that you would change your tune if a dozen uniformed officers armed with automatic weapons and a vehicle mounting a belt fed machine gun banged on your door and demanded to search your home in the middle of the night; officers, I might add, who have the authority to confiscate your home and everything in it or completely destroy it in the process of a "Search" and leave you standing in the street in your pajamas.
No warrant or probable cause required.
That is the authority the Coast Guard has over live-aboard boaters. There is no recourse, no appeal.
And this is the way it will be as long as the US enforces it's right to maintain borders. Many people forget that a navigable waterway is a border. The rules are different on the border. If you want the 4th amendment live on land. Post 274 had the correct idea.
Thanks for the ping!
They aren't entering your house. That has nothing to do with this Coast Guard article.
Yes, that is the authority the Coast Guard has, and has had for many, many years. Notice how rarely it is ever the subject of a news story in even the leftist papers like this one.
Do you know the reasoning for not applying 4th amendment protections to these searches?
The USCG considers your boat, even a docked live-aboard in a marina, to be a "conveyance" and not a home. As a "conveyance" it is (in their eyes) a potential smuggler etc. They are quite free and easy about coming aboard any damn time they please, without a warrant or permission.
That explains it all.
This is insane! How does checking for oily water protect us from terrorists? Either its a safety inspection or a homeland security inspection. The two ain't the same! And I hardly think a safety inspection has to be done in the middle of the night. Thanks George Bush!
Nope. See my last about a boat being a "Conveyance" not a home. NO warrant needed, as the USCG or ICE will gladly tell you, at gun point.
At gunpoint in the middle of the night?
I can believe that. I wouldn't go out on the water after such a rousting either.
I agree. That orange chopper (or the white ship with the orange stripe) coming over the horizon while you are treading water is the best thing you will see in your life.
I don't understand the relevance of 274, but I do think that the government shouldn't have the right to cut up my home into little pieces looking for contraband because I didn't bow down low enough for some coastie and leave me with absolutely no recourse. I also think that officers of the government can be a little more polite to the people who pay their salaries. After all, they can afford to be when I'm standing on the dock in my pajamas and six young studs are covering me with their m16's.
A friend of mine had his boat destroyed by the Coast Guard drilling holes in the deck and breaking up the furniture, cutting down the rig and chopping up the mast looking for drugs that weren't there. Near as I can tell, his only offense was that he wasn't sufficiently respectful to the officer in charge of the boarding party. To add insult to injury, he was required to dispose of the derelict hulk at his own expense or face fines and possible jail time. Apparently, because they didn't find anything on the vessel, they didn't confiscate it. They gave it back to him.
He didn't even get an apology, but at least, they didn't put him in jail. In his case, not saying "Sir" cost him everything he had.
That's true, and that's the way it is, when you live aboard a "conveyance" (as the legal beagles call our boats.)
I don't like it, but it's a fact of life.
It's not so much the matter of what sort of "conveyance" it is. It is a border control issue. The area between the shore and 12 miles out is "the border". Anything in there is "on the border". It really is just that simple.
Are you (or anybody else) arguing that we should soften the borders and deny these powers to the Coast Guard?
Eject! Eject! Eject! Bump.
Yep, that would suck. It happened more often during the Reagan "zero tolerance" days. Usually the USCG were pretty decent, it was Customs who were the aholes with the drills.
But what can you do about it? Personally, I "say sir." It ain't worth my boat getting drilled and dismantled.
Now, if I did "say sir," and they wrecked my boat....my pride and joy....all bets might be off. Nuff said.
And if you step foot in an airport, then the rules are different. And if you drive your vehicle on a highway, then the rules are different. And if you carry "too much" cash, then the rules are different. And if a policeman asks for your name, you do NOT have the right to remain silent.
Yes, the rules are different and changing all the time. But not for the better.
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